180 gallon upgrade (skimmerless)

[lars on live]

yep I've actually cleaned it a couple times now. Still nervous about taking the skimmer offline, but everything seems to be going well. I was given the tank by someone who didn't want to deal with the upkeep anymore. So while some of the equipment is decent other stuff, like the skimmer isn't the best. With no plans for sps at this point I think my corals would benifit from the ATS approach. I was able to build one with left over parts I had around, the only thing I really had to buy for it was another lighting fixture from home depot. All in all it was a fairly cheap DIY project that seems to be working.

 

[sltloser]

That's great, and even if you do end up getting hard corals the ATS will work at keeping the water quality perfect for them also. You won't need to waste a ton of money on an expensive skimmer that only takes coral food out of the water column.

 

[sltloser]

Well i know it's been a while, but i do have a small update with some pictures!

A local saltwater aquarist is having to tear down his 270 gallon tank, and feeling like i needed something new in the tank i stopped over and had a look at what corals he had left. What caught my eye was a 5" red montipora cap coral. For the next week or so it will sit on the bottom of the tank while it acclimates to the new lighting.

I also did a clean of my ATS last night with a razorblade, here's what it looks like now.

Last but not least, i took all the cheto out of the sump. It was really hard letting all that life go, but i'm going to be putting some seagrass in there within the next few months and decided it was time for it to go.

 

[sltloser]

Another update for everyone, i got a couple of new fish today and got a new coral last week! I also tested the water today, and the restults were NO3- 0, Ca- 350, pH-8.3, Alk-same as before.

After about a week of acclimating to the light in the tank, i moved the monti cap up to where it will be. It's on the left hand rock structure.

The newest coral i picked up was a maricultured tabling acropora.

And the two newest fish are JAPANESE SWALLOWTAIL ANGELS! i've been waiting for these guys to come in for a long time, and i finally got myself a male and female.

Male

Female

 

[sltloser]

Here are some pictures of the tank, and the new coral i picked up a few days ago.

Left

Middle

Right

FTS

Brain coral

Close up

 

[Prairie]

Looking great! Is that macro algae growing behind your brain coral? If so what type is it?

 

[beex215]

was the stand built or bought? it looks good either way. the new aqua scape turned out alot better

 

[sltloser]

Thanks all!

Prairie- I actually have no idea what type of macro algae it is, it came in on the LR and has grown great ever since.

beex215- I did buy the stand, it's a newer model and works great for putting a sump underneath becuase the two doors on the right side don't have a center brace allowing a lot of room to fit a tank under.

 

[ReefRescue]

Gonna tag along for this one looks like a cool project......

 

[tahiriqbal]

Great start and good luck with your ATS. I actually installed and kick started my ATS around 7 weeks ago and pull the plug off my rather large AP902 skimmer. My system is also on the large side (72x28x24) and in all honesty my tank never looked better. I ran my skimmer and ATS side by side for around 3 weeks and once ATS started to grow good stuff on it I simply turned off the skimmer. I have already cleaned the screen three times and my SPS are showing really nice bright colours with good growth. My LPS are also taking full advantage from this since there is plenty goodies left in the water for them to consume as in the past skimmer would take most of it out. Once again I wish you all the best and love to see this great build.

 

[rivoth]

I have a question about your refugium section. This picture shows the one corner with a raised deeper sandbed. What where your goals for this raised section, and how important do you think it is?

The sloped ATS section looks like a really nice design. Are you happy with the angle and size? Anything you would change about the ATS part of the design if you were to do it over again?

I'm really pulling for your tank to work. I've run my 70 gallon DSB system for 2 1/2 years with no skimmer or sump, but for a long time it was just a macro algae tank. I'm just now seeing if it will work with a few select LPS. My primary worry is that I don't have a good export mechanism right now.

Thanks

And finally here's the sump, you can see that there is a raised sandbed in the back, i used a piece of acrylic to cut off the corner and transfered about half of my old sandbed into this tank I also transfered the huge ball of cheto i had in hopes of helping to carry over some of the life from the old tank.

Comment and questions are always welcomed!

 

[reefsandrotts]

Same problem here with the gobies,they were so cute in the stores tank then they reared their ugly little heads all over my sticks......

 

[sltloser]

rivoth- The raised deeper sandbed you see in the corner is the sandbed from my old tank, I put it in a large plastic containter with light and flow to keep it alive while this tank was set up. The idea behind it was to bring all those organisms into the new tank, and to create a variation in grain size for a different habitat. As far as how important i think it is, it's not a necesity at all just something i used so as not to waste all that life.
- I have been very happy with the ATS design, i've actually helped to put it into a few different peoples tanks and it's work very well in all of them. There isn't anything i would change about it.
-Thank you for the support, i helped a friend set up his 180 gallon before mine and we used this same design. His tank is chalk full of hard corals (acropora, stylophora, montipora, favia, birds nest etc..) and it's been up for about a year longer than mine and the corals look AMAZING they grow like weeds, and all the levels stay in perfect parameters. I think your 70 gallon will do great, if you'd like more information on your DSDB visit Dr. Ron Shimek's website (www.ronshimek.com), you'll see exactly why your tank will do great with the DSB and will work well as your export mechanism; especially becuase it's been established.

Reefsandrots- well so far so good, we'll just have to see how things go

 

[rivoth]

Curious for any updates on how the tank is doing?

 

[sltloser]

rivoth- Sorry i know it's been a while, i've been debating on when to give another update. (i always like when ppl post pictures so i was going to wait untill i had some stuff to show) As far as my livestock goes, i haven't gotten any new fish but the ones i have are starting to get really FAT! everyone gets along and is looking great. A friend of mine had some major problems with his tank, and i took all his corals (in very bad shape) about a month ago so my tank is way more packed than i wanted but i just couldn't let them all die. So far everyone is looking much better then they were before, some are even growing tissue back! I'll try and get some pictures up in the next few days, If anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

This past week i read two great articles by Dr. Ron Shimek, and Tim Wijgerde in CORAL magazine. The articles focused on the feeding of corals, Dr. Shimek has been using cyclop-eze, and 2 day old hatched brine shrimp cysts to keep Diodogorgia (a non-photosynthetic gorgonian) alive. He gut loads these little guys with DT's phytoplankton, and slowly siphons them into the tank over a few hours. I'm going to try this method of feeding in my tank, i'm going to set up a 5 gallon brine shrimp hatchery and feed the tank every 2 days when the brine shrimp hatch. On the days i don't feed the brine shrimp i'm going to feed my home made frozen coral food. I'll be interested to see the growth rate of the corals when i start this regime.

 

[rivoth]

That was a good set of articles. They did leave open the problem of knowning which of your corals will actually benefit from artemia as a food source. I hope you take good notes and pictures that might help that knowledge base along.

Are you pretty happy with the level of life in your sand bed? Mine has finally recovered from it's reset after this summers re-flooring project. Worm tunnels all over and against all sides of the glass. I'm also starting to see little sand humps everywhere from some type of critter that likes to make ant hills. One of them even made a large mound of sand a few inches above the sand bed on one of my flatter rocks. Waiting for a Tiger Tail Sea Cucumber to help with the Cyano that comes with extra feeding.

 

[sltloser]

rivoth- I'm glad you also liked the articles. All carnivorus corals will benefit from the addition of feeding artemia nauplii, they're small enough for polyps to be able to get ahold of and ingest, and are high in nutritional value. One example given in the article such as S. pistillata haveing a zooxanthallae concentration double after just two weeks of feeding Artemia nauplii. The conclusion of the article goes on to tell us that gorgonians and stony corals are generally carnivores, and that they have many relatives that have a diet resembling that of the corals described. For me this means that any type of coral that is carnivorous is going to benefit from the addition of Artemia napulii. Hope that helps to clarify it (i'm no expert, but this is how i took what was said)

I'm very happy with the amount of life in my sandbed, it's amazing how much life thrives in my tank. My past 75 didn't even have this much life in it. I too have the little sand humps, all over my tank i'm not too sure what they are but i'm going to do some research and see if i can figure it out (my guess is some sort of borrowing worm) Along my glass i also have tons of worm tracks and pickets where gass exchange is occuring. Night is the best time for me to look at the sandbed, i have hundreds of amphipods that scuttle around the sandbed along with hundreds of baby cerith snails (these guys are about the size of each grain of sand!). I also see my two large brittle stars out, along with many bristle worms and mini brittle sea stars.

My black sea cucubmer has almost doubled in size since getting him, he cruzes around the sandbed all day ingesting sand and excreting it in little pellets.

 

[sltloser]

Well i was finally able to get some pictures of the corals that i got. Sorry for the bad pictures, i just have a digital camera. I'll try and get a friend over to take better ones.

Lengsai cap

 

[Carpentersreef]

Hi,

Your last Ca reading was 350, about 20% lower than NSW. I was wondering how you are compensating for the mineral uptake by your corals if you are not doing any water changes or dosing additives.

Thanks,
Mitch

 

[sltloser]

carpetner- I do dose addatives, calcium magnesium and alkalinity are all dosed weekly. Since that reading i've brought it up, i tested yesterday and the Ca was at 440 (salifert)